![Foo Fighters’ Chris Shiflett Rig Rundown [2024]](https://www.premierguitar.com/media-library/youtube.jpg?id=53453295&width=1245&height=700&quality=85&coordinates=0%2C0%2C0%2C0)
The Foos’ guitarist and intrepid Shred With Shifty host opens the guitar garage for his current tour and details his brand-new pedal setup.
The last time PGcaught up with Chris Shiflett, Chris Kies paid a visit to Foo Fighters headquarters at Studio 606. This time, he meets Shiflett in Cincinnati, onstage at Great American Ballpark ahead of the Foos’ July 25 headlining date at the stadium. It was a hot one out there, but that didn’t stop our jeans-wearing Kies and towel-drying Shifty from tackling the guitarist’s new and improved 2024 tour rig. You’ll see some familiar faces, but some new ones too, including a sharp ’80s shredder and a pink partscaster. The biggest change of all comes in the form of a Dave Friedman-designed pedalboard, an impressive rackmount setup with a massive RJM switcher to hit all the set pieces. Plus, Shifty gives some juicy teasers on future signature gear collabs and talks about how hosting Shred With Shifty has impacted his own playing.
Brought to you by D’Addario.
Leave It to Clever
The beloved high-end version of Shifty’s signature Fender Telecaster Deluxe is equipped with Lindy Fralin P-90s, a rosewood fretboard, and Shifty’s Arsenal pin on the strap—haters be damned.
Eat the Rich
Shifty was on tour in Washington, D.C., when PG’s Jason Shadrick sent him the Reverb listing for this 1983 B.C. Rich Mockingbird. As luck would have it, the ’bird was just north in Maryland, and the seller agreed to drive the axe down and deliver it in person. Shifty swapped in some Dimarzio Super Distortion pickups, but the wiring was a bit screwy, so the kind folks at B.C. Rich reached out and arranged to fix things up. This one has D’Addario .010–.046 strings.
Pink Partscaster
This simple, eye-catching partscaster is an homage to Shifty’s favorite players from the ’80s, chief among them Eddie Van Halen. It has a single Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Model humbucker, a Floyd Rose tremolo system, and a lone volume knob. The online-ordered headstock has Shiflett’s name on it, just so no one takes it by accident. Eric Chaz at Eric’s Guitar Shop in Van Nuys, California, assembled this pink plucker for Shiflett.
Shifty’s still using this one to workshop pieces of Van Halen’s tapping work on “Eruption,” and the haters can eat their hearts out, because perfect imitation isn’t the goal. “If it’s loud and you do it with some measure of confidence, it kind of works,” he says.
Kickass Korina
This Skynyrd-style Gibson Explorer has been hot rodded with a Seymour Duncan ’59 humbucker and another Duncan SH-4 JB Model.
Original Recipe
This is the original Fender Chris Shiflett Telecaster Deluxe, the guitarist’s first signature model which was designed and priced for accessibility to all players. This one got upgraded with a prized Tom Holmes humbucker. Stay tuned: Shifty teases that a new, American-made Shiflett signature might be coming by end of year….
Sticker Magnet
Shifty picked up this Gibson ES-335 around the tour cycle for One by One, and he’s since decorated it with a few stickers. This one’s got his classic Seymour Duncan ’59/JB humbucker combo, and stays in drop-D tuning for songs like “Monkey Wrench” and “Everlong.”
Fabulous '57
This is Shiflett’s “most vintage-y” vintage guitar: a 1957 Gibson Les Paul. He initially planned to reserve it for studio use, but fellow Foo guitarist Pat Smear convinced him to bring it out on the road. It started out as a goldtop, but now sports a finish that shows the wood and three-piece construction. It’s still loaded with the original pickups.
Stack City
Shiflett runs a beastly quartet of half-stacks, with two Friedman BE-100 heads and two Vox AC30 heads, all accompanied by matching 4x12 cabs. Shifty keeps the Friedmans in 50-watt mode, but look out—there could be a custom Shiflett Friedman amp coming down the line.
Death of the Tap Dance
Shiflett finally got tired of tap dancing around his pedalboard, and called up Dave Friedman for some help prepping a tour-ready rig. “He said, ‘Oh, so you decided to finally get a big boy rig?’” Shiflett laughs. Friedman designed it around an RJM Mastermind GT/22, with all of Shifty’s pedals housed in a rack sidestage. It took some getting used to, but now Shiflett’s built up the muscle memory to navigate the system. For adding new sounds, he’ll text his tech, Mark Lubetski, which settings or sounds he wants for certain “scenes,” and Mark will program them in.
Pedal Playpen
Shiflett’s pedal setup takes up two shelves in this side-stage rack. On the lower shelf, there are two Strymon Decos and two Strymon Timelines—one of each assigned to either the Voxes or the Friedmans—plus an Electro-Harmonix Micro POG, a Boss CE-2w, a Suhr microMIDI Control, and a Friedman Power Grid 10.
On the upper shelf, Shifty keeps the fun stuff: a JHS Muffuletta, Xotic EP Booster, Origin Effects Cali76, Fulltone WahFull, Klon KTR, Andy Green Pedals Seaverb, MXR EVH Phase 90, and MXR Flanger.
Shop Chris Shiflett's Foo Fighters Rig
Gibson Explorer
D’Addario .010–.046
Seymour Duncan SH-4 JB Model Humbucker
Seymour Duncan ’59 Humbucker
Gibson ES-335
1957 Gibson Les Paul
Friedman BE-100
Vox AC30
Strymon Deco
Strymon TimeLine
Electro-Harmonix Micro POG
Boss CE-2w
Suhr microMIDI Control
Friedman Power Grid 10
JHS Muffuletta
Xotic EP Booster
Origin Effects Cali76
Fulltone WahFull
MXR EVH Phase 90
MXR Flanger
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TWA CHEMICAL-Z
Roy Z signature overdrive pedal designed by TubeScreamer creator Susumu Tamura. Inspired by Maxon OD808, OD808X, and APEX808 circuits, Chemical-Z features the "Magic" IC used in APEX808 for less compression & more even frequency response than a standard 808. Increased output level. Two footswitch-selectable clipping modes - normal & hot.
Cory Wong—a funky player with his own signature-model Strat wiring.
Guitarist, songwriter, and producer Cory Wong is renowned for his solo work, his band Fearless Flyers (with Mark Lettieri, Joe Dart, and Nate Smith), and collaborations with artists such as Vulfpeck, Jon Batiste, and Dave Koz. His playing style is deeply rooted in funk rhythm guitar, with a heavy dose of rock and jazz. Well-known for playing a Stratocaster, his signature model was released in 2021, and it’s a unique offering. If you want to build your personal Cory Wong Strat, here is your shopping list, starting with the primary structure:
• Alder body, scaled down to slightly smaller than a regular Stratocaster, with Fender American Ultra body contours
• Maple neck with a rosewood fretboard with rolled edges, modern Fender American Ultra D neck profile, slightly larger headstock, 25.5" scale, 10" to 14" compound radius, 22 medium jumbo frets
• Locking tuners with all short posts, a bone nut, and two roller string trees
• Vintage-style 6-screw synchronized tremolo
• Hair tie around the tremolo springs (which mutes them to enhance the rhythm tone)
• .010–.046 strings (nickel-plated steel)
“While these are all interesting features, resulting in a very comfortable guitar, you don’t need to copy every detail to transform one of your Stratocasters into a Cory Wong-style Strat.”
For the physical build, as you can see, Wong and Fender created a real signature instrument to his specs and wishes. While these are all interesting features, resulting in a very comfortable guitar, you don’t need to copy every detail to transform one of your Stratocasters into a Cory Wong-style Strat. My personal favorite of these is the hair tie for muting the tremolo springs. A lot of my funk-playing customers are doing similar things on their Strats to get a dry sound, and they’re using all kinds of funny things in there, like foam, rubber bands, and pieces of cotton, as well as hair ties.
Now, let’s have a look at the electronics:
• Seymour Duncan Cory Wong Clean Machine SSS pickup set
• Standard 5-way pickup-selector switch with classic Strat switching matrix
• 250k master volume pot with a 90/10 audio taper and Fender treble-bleed circuit PCB
• 250k tone pot with a 90/10 audio taper and Fender Greasebucket tone control PCB for only the neck pickup
• 250k audio push-push tone pot with Fender Greasebucket tone control PCB for only the bridge pickup; the push-push switch overrides the 5-way switch and defaults to middle + neck pickup (in parallel) as a preset
• Middle pickup is without tone control
Let’s break this down piece-by-piece to decode it:
Pickups
The pickup set is a custom SSS set from the Seymour Duncan company with the following specs:
• Overwound hum-canceling stacked bridge pickup with a 3-conductor wire and shield in permanent hum-canceling mode (red wire taped off), bevelled alnico 5 magnets, approximately 14.5k-ohm DCR
• Overwound middle single-coil, RWRP, beveled alnico 4 magnets, approximately 7.1k-ohm DCR
• Overwound neck single-coil, bevelled alnico 4 magnets, approx. 7.0k-ohm DCR
The pickups are voiced for clear highs, which perfectly suits Wong’s funky playing style and tone. While a lot of pickup companies will have pickups in that ballpark, it will be difficult to put together a full set that really works as intended. The Duncans in the Cory Wong Strat are available as a balanced set, so if you want to get as close as possible, I think this is your best bet.
5-Way Pickup Selector Switch
Nothing special here, just the standard 5-way switch with two switching stages that is wired like a classic Stratocaster:
bridge
bridge + middle in parallel
middle
middle + neck in parallel
neck
The upper tone pot is assigned to the neck pickup, while the lower tone pot is connected to the bridge pickup, leaving the middle pickup without tone control.
Master volume pot and treble-bleed circuit.
The 250k master volume pot is a standard CTS pot with a 90/10 audio taper found in all U.S.-made Fender guitars. The volume pot has the treble-bleed circuit from the Fender American Pro series, but uses a ready-to-solder PCB from Fender instead of individual electronic parts. The PCB is available from Fender individually (part #7711092000), but I have some thoughts about it. While using a PCB makes a lot of sense for mass production, it has some downsides for us mortal human beings:
• Soldering on PCBs requires some training and also special soldering tools.
• The PCB is quite expensive, while the individual electronic parts are only a few cents.
• The PCB uses ultra-tiny surface-mount parts, so it’s very difficult to repair or mod it to your personal taste.
I don’t think we need a PCB for adding a treble-bleed circuit, so let’s do this project using conventional electronic parts. The treble-bleed PCB contains a 1200 pF capacitor with a 150k-ohm resistor in parallel, plus another 20k-ohm resistor in series. Using individual parts, it looks like this:
Courtesy of single-coil.com
In general, a treble-bleed circuit will help you to combat the “volume vs. tone problem” when using passive single-coil pickups. When you turn down the volume (even just a bit), the high end or treble loss is not proportionate. In other words, a small cut in volume creates a far greater loss in your guitar’s treble response. Using a treble-bleed circuit is an easy way to get rid of this problem, as long as it is calculated carefully.
ONLINE ONLY: If you want to find out more about treble bleed circuits please have a look here: https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/mod-garage/treble-bleed-mod
Next month, we will continue with part two of the Cory Wong Stratocaster wiring, bringing it all together, so stay tuned!
Until then ... keep on modding!